Mister Sinister

Mister Sinister (Dr. Nathaniel Essex) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Chris Claremont, the character was first mentioned as the employer behind the team of assassins known as the Marauders in The Uncanny X-Men #212 (December 1986), and later seen in silhouette in The Uncanny X-Men #213, with both issues serving as chapters of the 1986 "Mutant Massacre" crossover. Mr. Sinister then made his first full appearance in The Uncanny X-Men #221 (September 1987), with artist Marc Silvestri designing his visual look.

A villain who usually prefers to act through agents and manipulation, Mr. Sinister was born Nathaniel Essex in Victorian London. A human scientist, Essex is inspired by the work of his contemporary Charles Darwin and becomes obsessed with engineering humanity into a perfect race of superhumans. As he learns about mutants (superhuman beings born with the X-gene), Essex encounters the mutant villain Apocalypse. The two become allies and Apocalypse uses alien Celestial technology to transform the British scientist into Mr. Sinister, an ageless man with super-powers. Later on, Sinister increases his power through self-experimentation. In the modern day, Sinister develops a great interest and protective attitude towards the mutant heroes Cyclops and Jean Grey, believing their DNA can create the ultimate mutant. This and other factors lead him to have repeated clashes with the X-Men (a group Cyclops and Jean Grey helped found) and related teams. Through clones, Sinister has managed to cheat his death repeatedly and even acquire a mutant gene. Later, the Krakoan Age storyline revealed that the original Mr Sinister was one of several clones of the original Nathaniel Essex, each with a distinctive scientific specialism and playing card theme.

Making frequent appearances in the X-Men comics and related spin-off titles, Mr. Sinister has also featured in associated Marvel merchandise including animated television series, toys, trading cards, and video games. IGN's list of the "Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time" ranked Sinister as #29. The character was exposed to a wider audience with his television debut on X-Men: The Animated Series voiced by Christopher Britton, as well as an appearance in Wolverine and the X-Men voiced by Clancy Brown.

Publication history

Writer Chris Claremont conceived Sinister as a new villain for the X-Men. Having felt "tired of just going back to Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and the same old same old" Claremont recalled:

Dave Cockrum and I went over ideas, and what we were coming towards was a mysterious young boy—apparently an 11-year-old—at the orphanage where Scott (Cyclops) was raised, who turned out to be the secret master of the place. In effect what we were setting up was a guy who was aging over a lifespan of roughly a thousand years. Even though he looked like an 11-year-old, he'd actually been alive since the mid-century at this point—he was actually about 50 [...] He had all the grown-up urges. He's growing up in his mind but his body isn't capable of handling it, which makes him quite cranky. And, of course, looking like an 11-year-old, who'd take him seriously in the criminal community? [...] So he built himself an agent in a sense, which was Mister Sinister, that was, in effect, the rationale behind Sinister's rather—for want of a better word—childish or kid-like appearance. The costume... the look... the face... it's what would scare a child. Even when he was designed, he wasn't what you'd expect in a guy like that.

Mister Sinister was first mentioned by the assassin Sabretooth as the employer behind the team of assassins known as the Marauders in The Uncanny X-Men #212 (December 1986), which was part of the 1986 "Mutant Massacre" storyline, in which Sinister ordered the Marauders to kill the Morlocks living beneath New York City. In the next issue, drawn by Alan Davis, Mr. Sinister is first glimpsed as a generic silhouette when the telepathic X-Man Psylocke scans Sabretooth's mind. Mister Sinister appeared unobscured for the first time on the opening splash page of issue #221 (September 1987), drawn by Marc Silvestri. The character is one of the major antagonists in the 1989 "Inferno" storyline, where it is revealed he created the character Madelyne Pryor, estranged wife of Scott Summers (the mutant hero Cyclops), by cloning Scott's former lover Jean Grey, who was believed dead at the time. Sinister sent Madelyne into Scott's life in the hopes that the combined DNA of Grey and Summers would result in the birth of a powerful mutant. Soon after "Inferno", Sinister is also revealed to have manipulated Cyclops' life since early childhood and who at times has influenced his behavior from afar. After a battle with the X-Men and X-Factor, the villain is apparently destroyed by Cyclops' optic beam, leaving behind only bones.

Months after his apparent death, backup stories by Claremont published in the reprint series Classic X-Men #41–42 (December 1989) detailed the role Mister Sinister played in Cyclops' early life at an orphanage in Nebraska. The stories feature a boy named Nate who is roommates with the young Scott Summers. Despite Scott saying he does not particularly like Nate, the boy appears to be unhealthily attached to him and is aggressively protective, blocking Scott from having other friends. Claremont intended Nate to actually be Mister Sinister, revealing this was his true form and the armored villain was an illusion he used to threaten others. However, Claremont left the X-Men comics before this origin was revealed to readers. Fans later considered "Nate" to be Sinister in disguise as a boy, whereas his adult, armored appearance was his true form. The 2009 series X-Men Forever (vol. 2) showed an alternate timeline, beginning at roughly the same point where Chris Claremont left as head writer of the X-Men years before. Written by Claremont, the series revealed how he would have continued the stories and what revelations he would have made about different characters. The 2010 sequel series, X-Men Forever 2 features Mr. Sinister as a character who is over a century old yet still physically an adolescent boy, using a robot called Mr. Sinister to act as a proxy.

Despite his apparent death in the "Inferno" storyline, Sinister appeared again in X-Factor in 1992, now leader of the Nasty Boys team and displaying the ability to regenerate from damage. He played a major role in the 1992-1993 crossover storyline "X-Cutioner's Song", unwittingly helping to unleash the Legacy Virus on the world. In X-Men (vol. 2) #22-23 (1993), Sinister reveals his seeming death was a "ruse" so he could retreat rather than fight the combined X-Men and X-Factor teams. The same story depicts Sinister willing to protect Cyclops from other villains.

By 1994 Mister Sinister was popular enough that Chef Boyardee used him to advertise its pasta. In X-Men (vol. 2) Annual 1995, flashbacks reveal Sinister living in Los Angeles in the 1930s as "Nathan Essex" and depict him as an adult man during that era. In the 1996 limited series The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, writer Peter Milligan (with artists John Paul Leon and Klaus Janson) establishes Sinister's origin, revealing he was originally a Victorian-era scientist named Nathaniel Essex who later gained superhuman powers from Apocalypse, thus abandoning Claremont's idea that he was an immortal trapped in the form of a child.

The 2006 mini-series X-Men: Colossus Bloodline revealed that Mr. Sinister's powers were weakening and he hoped to restore them. Before he can restore his full power, Sinister is killed in New X-Men (vol. 2) #46 (2008). The same year, a contingency plan in X-Men: Legacy #214-215 involves him attempting to take a new host body, but fails. In X-23 (vol. 3) #5-6 (2011), another resurrection contingency plan led to the creation of Miss Sinister and to Mr. Sinister's mind inhabiting a clone body of himself. In The Uncanny X-Men #544 (2011), it is revealed that Sinister is now an entire colony of Sinister clones co-existing, each with minor differences. In subsequent battles, the leader Sinister and other clones were killed, only to be replaced by new clones with the same consciousness and improved genetics. The community of Sinister clones is destroyed in The Uncanny X-Men (vol. 2) #16 (2012). In issue #17 (2012), reveals that one copy of Mr. Sinister's mind survived, however, planting himself in the mind of X-Men public relations manager Kate Kildare. The surviving Sinister mind kills her and creates a new clone body to inhabit.

In the 2019 mini-series Powers of X, it is revealed that several years before the present-day, one of the clones Sinister created possessed an X-gene, making him a mutant like the X-Men. This mutant Sinister assumed leadership of the community of Sinister clones and seems to be the surviving version who operates today. The same mini-series involved Mr. Sinister joining the new mutant community of the island Krakoa, and joining its ruling Quiet Council alongside Magneto, Professor X, Apocalypse, and others.